Stealing
by Claire Whitmore
Summary: He tried to love her, she loved to hate him. Sneak to Hogsmeade, steal something you don't need or want, drink, have sex with the person you loathed and wake up early the next sunrise so no one could ever know. It's a fun game. However, when you are a witness in a murder of an Auror, could you have any moral values left to find the killer? Or is not telling just another game now?
1. Not Very Sober

Hot, sticky breath passed between them. Their bodies were so intertwined and locked together, it wasn't entirely clear whose breath belonged to whom. He traced his tongue along her teeth, savouring the taste of her alcohol scented mouth. His act was well reciprocated, with her delicate jaw parting, allowing them both to begin to explore. The intimacy was present but the feelings and raw emotions were lacking.

James seized her by the waist, pulling her in closer still, not being sure if that were even possible. His clumsy and rushed movements shocked Lily, instinctively reached her hand for her dress and from there she held a strong grip on the bottle she had stolen minutes before. The same bottle of firewhiskey she despised and loved in an overly obsessive fashion.

She didn't want to lose the amber liquid that was pressed and sandwiched between her breast and James's ribs.

Kissing James like this –backed into the corner of the now closed Honeydukes- wasn't anything compared to when they tried to do this back in the dormitories or common room, like any other couple.

Instead, it had to be like this. Roughly, desperate and in secret. Not to forget just after the climatic rush of committing an act of theft.

Somehow the stealing seemed to be the main contributing factor to this.

Stealing was what brought them together and what now banded and tied them together with iron shackles.

"For fucks sake, just put the firewhiskey down." James growled between kisses that left a scorching hot trail on Lily's skin and ran down her neck.

"Like I would ever do anything you told me to do." Lily whispered, wrapping her bottleless hand around James' neck.

Taking matters into his own hands, James slipped his hand up Lily's shirt. His fingertips danced where her skin met his. Lily was almost sure she would have burn marks. Higher and higher he went, trying to get a grasp onto the bottle.

Lily's breath picked up. Panicking, she yanked her hand away from James', in the heat of the moment, she flung herself to the other side of the cramped shop. James wasn't alarmed though, this is what always happened.

She laughed as she disappeared into the dark shadows of the racks of sweets, her laugh was high, like a tin bell.

Lily gave James a few moments for his eyes to adjust. Then, once she was sure she had his undivided attention, with his eyes pouring over her body, she grinned widely and downed half of the contents.

"Fucking hell," Lily noted. "that's stronger than I thought."

"Never had it before?" James asked, leaning against what appeared to be isle three, knocking a few shelves down in the process.

"I've drunk _before_. You know that. But not this much." Lily shrugged, toying with the bottle, she smiled at it, she liked how it had made her throat burn as it travelled to her stomach.

"I'll show you how it's done," James promised, opening up his arms, wanting to catch the bottle. That is, if Lily threw it.

"Please," Lily rolled her eyes, suddenly feeling washed over from the intoxication.

James sucked the remainder of the firewhiskey down his throat.

"How did you unchanged so quickl-" James asked, positively astounded and shocked to see a distorted view of a near naked Lily through the glass of the firewhiskey.

James never was able to finish that question, on the account of an "Oh, shut up." from Lily and another sloppy kiss.

She then told him –well, ordered- to lock the door. Her wand was apparently too far away, in the discarded pile of clothes. She'd get it back when he slept though, just in case.

A faint 'click' was heard from the lock.

It was always the same.

When Lily finally woke her mind didn't want to keep up with her vision. Everything was blurry, it was blurry for such a long time that Lily began to doubt whether she had ever been able to see clearer.

However, when her eyes did finally focus she began to wish she were born blind.

The light hurt, sounds –stupid, heavy, dark sounds- hurt also.

Waking up with a hangover in your underwear –if that- before dawn so no one could notice you and James Potter sneak out of that shop you had broken into the light before. Speaking of, the said teenage boy was sprawled across the wooden floor, his head resting between a box of Bertie Botts and Fizzing Wizzbees. He was snoring.

Lily pondered for a moment, weighing up the positives and negatives and consequences –if any- of what she was about to do.

She kicked him sharply in the side.

"Fuck off, Evans." James grumbled groggily, rubbing the area where Lily's foot had come in contact with James's ribs. A bruise would grace James's body with its presence in a few days.

"_Tempus_" Lily waved her wand, feeling more intelligent than ever at her previous decision to swipe her wand back and to sleep with it in her hand as James slept. She would never be that venerable or disarmed in front of Potter. Ever. "Shit, Potter. It's almost six."

"It's January." James stated. "No one will be up for ages; the sun doesn't come up at six, Evans."

"I know that." Lily gritted through her teeth as she pulled her faded tee shirt back over her head.

"Then why the hell do you want to leave now?" James rolled his eyes, sliding into his jeans.

"So I don't get seen with you."

"And you think I want to be seen with _you_?"

"True." Lily decided.

"We're so fucked." James noted, taking a sweeping glance around the room. Almost everything that could have been broken was smashed or torn into several pieces. "_Reparo._"

"_Scourgify_." Lily added, cleaning up the liquidey mess that was once contained in a bottle of Butterbeer.

"Not much can be done about the books…" James said, flipping over one of the now barely readable Potions references on the floor.

"We'll burn them." Lily said, pointing her wand tip at the spine before muttering '_Incendio_'.

All that remanded were several clumps of salt and peppery coloured cooling ashes. Calmly Lily collected every last fragment and tipped it into a vase on the topmost shelf. Somehow, this vase had survived the night. James' jaw dropped.

"Since when did you destroy property that's not yours?" He asked.

"Are you kidding?" Lily cried. "No, don't actually answer that. I started burning and destroying things that aren't mine for ages. Ever since you gave me that grog for Christmas last year and then we stole from Sloghorn's archives!"

"That was sarcasm, Evans. And I didn't give the wine to you, I had some for myself and I wanted to get you drunk." James said.

"Oh."

"Same time next week?"

"Same place."

"It's half past."

"Shit, can't go back to breakfast with sex hair."

"You'll manage." James muttered before kissing Lily on the lips once more. He savoured it, as did Lily. They both knew they wouldn't be able to do this again for a whole seven days. They were both too engrossed in the strange disfigured relationship that gave them what they wanted to bother with proper dating. This was the closest they could get on the account of them being two fucked up kids.

Practically a lifetime for two teenagers.

"Are you going to put on a shirt?" Lily asked coyly.

"Are you going to put on pants?" James mimicked.

As they put on their clothes they got into character again to play their charade of deceiving literally everyone they encountered. Everyone saw James and Lily as sworn enemies who wouldn't touch each other to save their own lives. And that is how they acted.


	2. Not Very Drunk Now

"Run, Evans," James warned. His breath was shallow, much shallower than it had been the night before or whenever Lily had been near enough to document such things. This wasn't the sort of shallow and hurried breathing that came from arousal; this breathing came about from fear and nothing else. He reminded Lily somewhat of a rabbit being hunted by a fox.

"What?" Lily spun around to face James, her hair whipping weightlessly behind her. Time stood still.

"Run, you idiot!" James whispered as he began to break off into a sprint down the frosty main road of Hogsmeade. There was no time to care for another person's safety tonight, sacrifices would be made. James didn't expect himself to ever be selfless enough or to care about anyone enough to risk his life for theirs or to act altruistic. It just didn't happen to guys like him.

"Why?" Lily asked, glancing around her and wishing she had something that was a tad more insulating than underwear on. She, like James, sprinted. Her leaps were wide and light, she barely touched the soggy cobblestone pathway with the balls of her feet before she leapt off again. She wasn't thick enough to not run when James Potter, of all people, was terrified. James Potter was never scared.

"Are you _blind_? Inferi!"James breathed, running back to grab Lily's arm with his wand in his opposite hand.

Lily's heart stammered. Another dulling wave from that damned hangover ran over her like ripples over a still lake. There wasn't meant to be any Dark Magic here. Hogsmeade was one of the wizarding villages that was under constant protection from Lord Voldemort. Dememtors and Aurors under the orders of the Ministry patrolled here every day. Granted, this made it hard when she and James snuck out of the castle grounds to break into a shop, but in a way that made the game so much more exciting.

"They're not meant to be here!" Lily said sharply between breaths.

"Do you honestly think Voldemort gives a flying fuck about the Ministry?" James said.

James ran with Lily behind The Three Broomsticks, James slammed her against the brick wall, pinning her arms beside her. They took shelter here from the weather and from the dark creatures that screened the roads. Both of their bodies were electric with adrenaline. James' terrified eyes bore into hers.

"Now's not really the proper time…" Lily sighed.

"Proper time for what?" James snapped. "You think I dragged you here while we're running for our lives to snog?" James laughed.

Now when he said it like that it only made Lily feel foolish. She said nothing. It occurred to her that she didn't know James Potter very well.

"Now, shut up for _one_ second, for one in your life." James said harshly as he drew a very large piece of what appeared to be fresh parchment from his pocket. Straining her neck, Lily tried to get view of what James was studying. "Shit, we haven't put Hogsmeade on the map. That was on the draft we're making. Shit."

"Map? What map?" Lily demanded.

"Shut up!" James spat, his tone in a whirl of panic. "There's a passage back to the castle through this wall," He gestured his hand to the middle left portion of the large piece of parchment.

"What are you waiting for then?" Lily said cattishly.

James rolled his eyes and nudged Lily quite roughly in the side then cocked his head to the dozen inferi that were making their way sluggishly down the road that was dusted with snow. Lily flicked her eyes to them too. Lily could see the whites of their eyes.

"The passageway's behind that lot."

They were dead. She knew it. They were dead, they'd seen her and James and they were dead. They'd be slaughtered and then their bodies, or what will be left of them, would be made into those things.

_I love you_. Lily repeated over and over. _I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you._ She may be about to die, but there was no way in hell her last thought or words were going to be that of anything depressing or even to beg for mercy. She wouldn't go down crying, she hadn't cried since Severus had called her a Mudblood.

"Excuse me?" James asked.

"They've seen us." Lily's breathing was shallow, her legs were shaking. She pressed her fingernail into her arm and waited until she could feel sticky, wet blood. The taste of metal filled Lily's mouth. Pain clouds things. Distractions are your best friend. She'd rather be clutching a bleeding forearm than let anxiety from being next to death take over. "We're dead. We're dead a thousand times over."

James pressed his palm against Lily's mouth. His hand was dry and tasted like bark or cinnamon.

Lily thought over this, cinnamon or bark? Bark. He tasted like the trees and leaves and rocks and soil. He was solid and he was real and he was here. She almost laughed at the fact that she had never noticed this. All those times she had tasted James' mouth had seemed to be a waste now, like she wasn't using all of her senses. She thought she was a tourist that had just seen the pyramids of Giza blindfolded.

"James, we have to leave. Right. Now." Lily muffled through the Gryffindor's hand.

"Just a second." James said shortly. "I don't want them to hear us. They've got horrible eyesight, but their hearing is excelled."

A reflection of a red shot of light was seen on the puddles by their feet. Someone had cast a stunning spell.

"We're not alone." Lily wasn't sure if she was more anxious or relieved.

So unlike the inferi, James and Lily could perfectly see the reflections of everything that was happening around them. Stunning spell after stunning spell was fired, each was seemed more powerful and desperate than the last.

"Do you think we should help?" Lily asked.

"We'd be expelled if we were found to be here." James reminded.

There was a cracking noise and then a groan of ear-pinching pain was heard.

"I found you at last, Fabian. You have fought well." A cold high voice said, it sounded neither male nor female. If it weren't that it was speaking English James and Lily wouldn't think of it to be human at all. "Lord Voldemort recognises that. You've been so brave; it's too bad you are fighting for the wrong side. It's a shame, you would have made quite a good addition to the Death Eaters." His words hinted remorse or even pity, his tone did not.

"That's Voldemort…" James whispered. They were going to be found dead with their limbs in the wrong places in two weeks in Serbia.

"I guessed." Lily stammered. "I love you."

James almost forgot of where he was. "_What?_" His tone was rasp and harsh.

"Not you. God no. I just didn't want my last words to be 'I guessed'. It would be lame. Now, it you excuse me, I have something else to say."

"Which is?" James tried to make his voice quieter than what would be considered possible.

"I love you." She wasn't looking at James and her eyes were now in a far off place. The sort of place you'd escape to in the middle of a boring lesson in summer. It was a day dreaming sort of spot. A place where fairies roamed, the grass was dewy and thick and everything was brighter. It was a painless place.

She always did that. Ever since she could remember she used to dream of her made up magical land. Her ideological realm only grew stronger when Severus began to speak of Hogwarts and her magical place was made solid. In a few years little Lily would be able to literally go to her magical sanctuary.

It hurt like she had just been pushed off a bridge when she remembered that this horrible hole was her magical place. This horrible place with the cobwebs stuck in her hair, this place with puddles, with murderers, with no warmth and only bitter and sharp coldness. Most of all, this place she was stuck with was with perhaps the person she detested most.

James Potter.

She was a romantic, she was a dreamer. She used to be radiant, her eyes and smile could bring an entire room to her attention. She basked in this. It was her real fuel for getting her through, it was a confidence boost or kick. It geared and roared her sparky personality into life.

Now she was as bitter as the wind that was striking her cheek. So much for taking shelter behind the pub.

"Please, please don't do this." The voice whimpered.

Voldemort only laughed. The sound raped and scratched at Lily and James' ears. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Then there was silence for a moment.

It was only broken by a crack, a clear sign that he had finally disapparated and left. Not for long. No, Lord Voldemort wouldn't ever be gone, not really. But for a few hours, weeks or days, there could be peace. James and Lily could forget that Voldemort ever existed. They would go back safely to Hogwarts, Voldemort would _never_ dare to go there. He was terrified stiff of Dumbledore. Hogwarts was safe, it was warm and comforting.

It was a wonder that he even came this close to Hogwarts.

"Can we leave now?" Lily quivered; she had never been so meek. She didn't know when she had started to ask James Potter of things, it wasn't exactly for permission, it was more for advice. Should they leave now?

"Yeah," James said. "don't look down."

Steadily they both took one foot in front of the other. There was another rule now: Don't look down.

Lily broke that rule within two moments of its creation.

As she stepped over the dead man's middle she saw his frozen, quite literally, face. Fabian's tears had frozen in their spot. His mouth was ajar and his wand was posed in his hand. Was he about to try and deflect the Killing Curse? His eyes were open and looking at something Lily couldn't see.

He looked like a child, his body looked like he was a small child that had fallen asleep after a long day. The only thing was that small children that had fallen asleep weren't killed with everlasting expressions of fear. She didn't even know Fabian, she'd heard of him though, everyone had. The fantastic Fabian Prewett. He was Mad Eye Moody's second in command and was one spectacular fighter.

It was no surprise that Voldemort had been hunting him.

They could have helped.

They were sick, absolutely sick.

"We're not telling anyone about this ever." Lily warned. The threat wasn't included but it was quite clear of what they would lose if they spoke of what they'd just seen, what they could have prevented and what they'd done.

**James and Lily are pricks. I love them dearly. I'm going to thank "O Children" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Under The Thumb" by Ashok and "Kiss With a Fist" by Florence and the Machine for writing these two chapters for me.**


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